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Icy playgrounds mean no recess for GTA schoolkids

Call it the Schoolyard Ice Follies: playgrounds covered in glare ice across Toronto have been deemed so dangerous, thousands of students have been kept indoors for recess for days on end, leaving some parents so concerned, one group brought in a backhoe and sledgehammers after dark — against school rules — to clear a path.

Many complain their kids are watching movies during recess instead of getting fresh air because the ice is too costly to remove.

Students from Dewson Street School have a little fun - and learn a little of the good old Canadian skill of navigating ice - during a visit to the Evergreen Brickworks earlier this week. (Annie Vandenberg photo)

Faywood ABC school kids Elijah Brooks, Kaleb Brooks, Cole Zon, Ben Greenbaum, Lucas Zon and Sage Brooks would like to play in their schoolyard at recess, but can't because ice covers their play area. (Lucas Oleniuk / Toronto Star)

“It’s just too much to clear all the areas, and parents are calling me — I’ve had lots of emails and calls about their concerns.” said TDSB Trustee Jerry Chadwick, whose Guildwood ward was hit hard by December’s massive ice storm. One principal told Chadwick it’s not just students who need a break outside — so do teachers.

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The Toronto District School Board’s priority is to keep pathways clear, but the cost of chipping thick ice from hundreds of playgrounds would be beyond reach, and Chadwick said principals no longer can use their own school budgets for plowing asphalt.

“Yes, they’ve had indoor recess at many schools for days, and tempers are fraying, I know,” she said. The board will pilot-test a sand and salt mixture this weekend on several playgrounds, and if it works, they’ll apply it to all 200 sites.

“You learn by falling,” noted Cameron Collyer, director of programs at Evergreen Brickworks on Bayview Ave., where he said students arriving for field trips love the icy walk from Castle Frank subway station to the Bayview Ave. site — falls and all.

“The fallacy is that you can somehow eliminate risk and that’s a good thing because nobody will get hurt,” he added. “In fact, it’s the antithesis of how we learn to become safe adults. You need only look at the last two weeks — myself included — at how you have to be on your game to navigate those sidewalks. What’s helping you is the accumulation of physical experience; actual skills learned and nurtured in childhood.”

Even a new ad by an Olympic sponsor shows children wiping out on ice and snow, only to end up as champions, thanking their moms for allowing them to fall and be stronger.

Anthony Westenberg, in charge of communications outreach for Evergreen Brick Works, remembers a teacher at his rural Kingston elementary school who would actually flood the schoolyard each winter, “making recess a dream. I think we all spent more winter outdoor time wearing skates than winter books … after a snow, if you had done your math homework, you were allowed to go outside 20 minutes early to shovel the rink.”

During one recent icy lunch hour, students at Stanley Public School put on their snowsuits and boots to walk around the school twice, then went back in to watch a movie, said parent Jenny Argyris, who is frustrated that the playground can’t be cleared.

“It’s warm enough (for outdoor recess),” she said. “But they are slipping and sliding all over the place.”

Parents at one Brampton Catholic school were so concerned about ice on the path — one grandparent had fallen, a child had broken an arm — that they brought in a backhoe and sledgehammers after dark to clear the ice, even without official permission.

“We were like elves taking away the ice in the night,” confided one father.

At North York’s Faywood Arts-Based Curriculum School, parent Steve Gould said children hoped to have their first outdoor recess in two weeks Friday.

“The kids are getting rangy, but it’s been too dangerous with the ice — it’s at least two inches thick. They could run and slip, and there could be broken bones and cracked heads. We’d try to get a salt truck in ourselves if we could.”

Toronto custodians have been instructed to clear a path around buildings and entranceways — but leave the rest of the yard like a skating rink.

In Peel, the public board keeps all asphalted areas clear, a job that has kept contractors working around the clock, given this year’s harsh weather, said Gord Thompson, regional manager of facility services.

“At a certain temperature, salt won’t work — it will only burn a little hole,” he said, leaving contractors to use sand or a salt-and-sand mix, “which at least gives you traction” but makes things messy once kids go inside.

Some contractors have worked over the holidays, in some cases bringing in heavy equipment to scrape off ice.

“Years ago, we made the decision that, overall, it was safer to do it this way,” Thompson said. “But it’s not carved in stone. If it’s not icy and there’s just snow, it’s better for the kids to play in the snow,” and some principals request that only half the playground be cleared so kids have a snowy place to play.

Chadwick said Toronto schoolyards with five or more portables will be cleared, as well as those that have programs for children who are handicapped. He has asked the board’s facility services what can be done to help alleviate the slick conditions, and crews were addressing problem areas on Friday.

However, some principals are being creative — appointing students as young as Grade 2 to be “ice monitors” to keep kids in cleared areas.

Chadwick said he’s also heard of one school where kids were going out for recess and “playing on the ice and having lots of fun.

“That’s part of it; it’s winter in Canada, so get out and play around.”

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